By John Rentoul
Contrary to SNP hopes and propaganda, support for independence in Scotland fell to a historic low in the wake of Alex Salmond's election as first minister earlier this year. Anthony Wells in his Polling Report blog reports:
some of the findings of the annual survey of Scottish Social Attitudes have been published. This is an annual academic study using a genuine random sample - a slow and expensive process, hence the fact it was carried out over several months between May and August 2007. Asked about Scotland’s relationship with the UK they found only 23% in favour of complete independence, the lowest recorded since the SSA started asking the question in 1997 and down from 30% in 2006 and 35% in 2005.
This is an unimpeachable time series, as opposed to the one-off polls often commissioned by the SNP for political purposes or by the media looking for headlines. The headline on this one ought to be: Panic Over - survey finds that SNP government reinforces support for the Union.
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